Developing
The survey is from January, so it predates the AI Mode homepage change reported in September.
In 60 seconds
- Gartner's survey, published January 21, 2026, found only one-third of consumers believe GenAI rivals search engines.
- 31% say AI summaries increase research time; 82% read AI Overviews but do not rely on them exclusively.
- 51% changed research habits because of GenAI and 71% changed how they phrase searches.
- Gartner forecasts that by 2028, 60% of brands will use agentic AI for personalized interactions.
Impact Layer
- What changed
- Analyst data pushes back on the idea that AI chat has replaced search for consumers.
- Why it matters
- Marketers cannot treat AI answers as a substitute for classic search; both must be served.
- Who is affected
- Marketing leaders and SEO teams setting channel priorities.
- Martech stack area
- AI, SEO & Search
- Stack impact
- Keep investment in traditional search while measuring AI answers.
- Business impact
- Moderate We read a summary by CX Today; Gartner's press page was blocked. Sample size and method were not stated in what we read.
- What to watch
- Whether a later Gartner survey shows more reliance on AI answers after the September interface changes.
Gartner published a survey on January 21, 2026 about how consumers compare generative AI with search engines, as summarised by CX Today.
Findings reported
- Only about one-third of consumers believe GenAI rivals search engines for learning new information.
- 31% say AI summaries increase their research time.
- 82% read AI Overviews but do not rely on them exclusively.
- 51% have changed their research habits because of GenAI, and 71% changed how they phrase searches.
- Gartner forecasts that by 2028, 60% of brands will use agentic AI for personalized interactions.
Emma Mathison, a senior principal researcher at Gartner, is quoted: “Marketers cannot afford to think of AI as a replacement for traditional search.” The advice is to optimize content across several discovery channels at once and keep it consistent for AI answers and for classic results.
Our read
The survey is a useful counterweight to claims that AI chat has taken over, and it dates from January, before Google moved AI Mode to the homepage. Treat it as a baseline. The practical takeaway is the one Gartner states: serve both. We read a trade-press summary because the Gartner page blocked access, and the summary gives no sample size.
Sources
- CX Today: Marketers face higher expectations across search and AI tools, Gartner finds (opens in a new tab)
Source of the figures, forecast and quotation.
- Gartner: survey finds only one-third of consumers say GenAI rivals search engines (opens in a new tab)
The press release. It blocked direct access, so it was not read.